The Roles of Men and Women Within the Cherokee Culture

The women of the Cherokee are the one's who determine what clan children belong to. Each clan has their own " entities with names, traditions, oral history, and membership rules," making them all slightly different from the other ones. The Cherokee women's roles are much different than that of an average American women's roles. They are considered worriers and they are the owners of their homes, even though the men build them. The women have full control of their families and also participate in their government. They also had many of the same roles as other Native American women such as, skinning animals, gathering fruits and nuts, along with making baskets. The women of the Cherokee also had a big choice in who they has as sexual partners. Just because someone is married it does not mean that they are bound together. Women have a great sexual freedom.



The men of the Cherokee are equal to the women. But, the men's jobs are doing things such as building houses, cutting down trees and carving out canoes. They are also in charge of putting wood post fences around the villages. The men are responsible for hunting and fishing along with building traps and making nets for doing these things. They also will fix things such as shoe (moccasins) as well. Men would often marry women from other villages and then be expected to move to their new wife's village instead of staying in their own. Also fathers would not necessarily have a close relationship with their children due to the fact that their children will be a part of their mother's clan.


The role of an Uncle in the clan is actually pretty interesting. Since the father is not truly allowed to punish the child for doing anything wrong. So, the mother's brother is responsible for punishing the children. The children's education was also reliant on the mother's brother. All around the Uncle has a very big role in the children's lives in the Cherokee culture. The uncle would even teach young boys how to hunt and the idea of warfare.


The children of the Cherokee frequently participate in many of the social roles of the community. Young boys will hunt and go fishing with the other men. Young girls would learn from their mothers how to garden and take care of their home. But, when they were not doing that they did have things such as dolls and toys. The children actually like to play a lot of different games together. A very common and popular game for teenagers is lacrosse.


Bring this back into my own life, I've grown up around a family that is very different from this culture. In my family my mom stays home she cooks and she cleans. My dad works 5.5 days out of the week and isn't home at all those days. My aunts and uncles do not play much of a role in my families life. We only see them on holidays so they really do not have a role in the raising of me or my siblings. Although in our family the young guys are usually expected to get their licenses and go hunting and fishing with their fathers and cousins and uncles. The young women are not expected to learn to garden or take care of the home. They are encouraged to help cook once in awhile though. So, in many ways our cultures are different but some things are surprisingly similar.




http://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/southeast/cherokee/roles.html


http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1451





http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/cms/lib3/GA01000373/Centricity/Domain/94/documents/cherokee.htm